OK, so the TV feed goes down because of storms in Austria/Switzerland - it 
happens.

The Beeb switches to the 5-live radio feed and a red screen saying "Sorry, 
there's a fault" - bravo for a bit of quick thinking someone.

Then some plonker fades out the radio feed to tell me "sorry, there's a 
fault and we're trying to fix it" whilst the game goes on without me knowing 
what's happening.  How dumb is that!  And then they do it again later!  I 
know they believe that viewers are so thick that they even need a DOG so 
that they know what channel they're watching but the change or commentators 
and the big red screen with the "sorry it's broken" message was really all I 
needed to tell me there was a fault.

Sigh,
Paul DS.

Yes, that struck me as a bit odd too.  Actually i'd have rather watched 
the Thunderstorm.  Keeping an eye out of the window behind the pundits 
doing the post mortem, the storm looked like a screamer!

Rob.


Paul D.Smith wrote:
> OK, so the TV feed goes down because of storms in Austria/Switzerland - 
> it happens.
> 
> The Beeb switches to the 5-live radio feed and a red screen saying 
> "Sorry, there's a fault" - bravo for a bit of quick thinking someone.
> 
> Then some plonker fades out the radio feed to tell me "sorry, there's a 
> fault and we're trying to fix it" whilst the game goes on without me 
> knowing what's happening.  How dumb is that!  And then they do it again 
> later!  I know they believe that viewers are so thick that they even 
> need a DOG so that they know what channel they're watching but the 
> change or commentators and the big red screen with the "sorry it's 
> broken" message was really all I needed to tell me there was a fault.
> 
> Sigh,
> Paul DS.

Robert Wilson wrote:
> Yes, that struck me as a bit odd too.  Actually i'd have rather watched 
> the Thunderstorm.  Keeping an eye out of the window behind the pundits 
> doing the post mortem, the storm looked like a screamer!

I was in Vienna a month ago, and was stuck at the airport for 6 hours 
because of a similar violent storm.

I'm not sure if last night's failure was due to rain fade on the 
satellite uplinks at Vienna, or power surges affecting the equipment in 
the switching centre. Perhaps both. I've seen the UPS/generator back up 
that's used there, and it was supposed to be bomb proof. However, you 
never know what's going to happen in a severe storm such as last night's.

Paul D.Smith wrote:

>OK, so the TV feed goes down because of storms in Austria/Switzerland - it 
>happens.
>
>The Beeb switches to the 5-live radio feed and a red screen saying "Sorry, 
>there's a fault" - bravo for a bit of quick thinking someone.
>
>Then some plonker fades out the radio feed to tell me "sorry, there's a 
>fault and we're trying to fix it" whilst the game goes on without me knowing 
>what's happening.  How dumb is that!

Then some time later they tell the radio bods and they make an
announcement. The thing is as it happened for the first time I had
just decided I couldn't face any more of Lawro and Motty and went for
the option of the radio commentary on 302. When the pic went they
didn't put the red fault screen up on 302.

The radio commentary also seemed to be just a little ahead of the
visuals, either that or they were very good at anticipating what was
about to happen.
-- 
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

...snip...

> The radio commentary also seemed to be just a little ahead of the
> visuals, either that or they were very good at anticipating what was
> about to happen.

Yes, I've noticed that before.  You would think they could introduce a 
slight delay to the radio-on-302 feed to compensate.  OTOH you get a chance 
to look up when something interesting happens before the picture shows it 
;-).

Paul DS

Mark Carver wrote:
> Robert Wilson wrote:
>> Yes, that struck me as a bit odd too.  Actually i'd have rather 
>> watched the Thunderstorm.  Keeping an eye out of the window behind the 
>> pundits doing the post mortem, the storm looked like a screamer!
> 
> I was in Vienna a month ago, and was stuck at the airport for 6 hours 
> because of a similar violent storm.
> 
> I'm not sure if last night's failure was due to rain fade on the 
> satellite uplinks at Vienna, or power surges affecting the equipment in 
> the switching centre. Perhaps both. I've seen the UPS/generator back up 
> that's used there, and it was supposed to be bomb proof. However, you 
> never know what's going to happen in a severe storm such as last night's.

It was referred to on Wogan this morning and he said it was the Sat link.

Back in 2004 I remember the awful storm in London that blotted out the 
TVC uplinks!

Richard

In message , Phil Cook 
 writes
>Paul D.Smith wrote:
>
>>OK, so the TV feed goes down because of storms in Austria/Switzerland - it
>>happens.
>>
>>The Beeb switches to the 5-live radio feed and a red screen saying "Sorry,
>>there's a fault" - bravo for a bit of quick thinking someone.
>>
>>Then some plonker fades out the radio feed to tell me "sorry, there's a
>>fault and we're trying to fix it" whilst the game goes on without me knowing
>>what's happening.  How dumb is that!
>
>Then some time later they tell the radio bods and they make an
>announcement. The thing is as it happened for the first time I had
>just decided I couldn't face any more of Lawro and Motty and went for
>the option of the radio commentary on 302. When the pic went they
>didn't put the red fault screen up on 302.
>
>The radio commentary also seemed to be just a little ahead of the
>visuals, either that or they were very good at anticipating what was
>about to happen.

It was quite pleasing for me that when the picture returned there was no 
time and score in the corner of the screen.

I've never felt any need for that, and especially not the larger visual 
every 15 mins to tell us the, erm, time and score which is really just 
an ad for Canon.

I've noticed recently, that when going directly to 301 etc., there is no 
more blue menu button, just a nice clean screen.
-- 
Ian

In message 6RFOoGDkH7YIFwM0@nospam.demon.co.uk,
Ian  Proclaimed from the tallest tower:

> In message , Phil Cook
>  writes
>> Paul D.Smith wrote:
>>
>>> OK, so the TV feed goes down because of storms in
>>> Austria/Switzerland - it happens.
>>>
>>> The Beeb switches to the 5-live radio feed and a red screen saying
>>> "Sorry, there's a fault" - bravo for a bit of quick thinking
>>> someone. Then some plonker fades out the radio feed to tell me "sorry,
>>> there's a fault and we're trying to fix it" whilst the game goes on
>>> without me knowing what's happening.  How dumb is that!
>>
>> Then some time later they tell the radio bods and they make an
>> announcement. The thing is as it happened for the first time I had
>> just decided I couldn't face any more of Lawro and Motty and went for
>> the option of the radio commentary on 302. When the pic went they
>> didn't put the red fault screen up on 302.
>>
>> The radio commentary also seemed to be just a little ahead of the
>> visuals, either that or they were very good at anticipating what was
>> about to happen.
>
> It was quite pleasing for me that when the picture returned there was
> no time and score in the corner of the screen.
>
> I've never felt any need for that, and especially not the larger
> visual every 15 mins to tell us the, erm, time and score which is
> really just an ad for Canon.
>
> I've noticed recently, that when going directly to 301 etc., there is
> no more blue menu button, just a nice clean screen.

Having the score on the screen IS useful if you've not actually been 
watching a game, then you flick the TV on, wander into the pub/shop or 
whatever and are trying to work out what's going on. Knowing how long is 
left to play is handy if you haven't been bothering to time the game 
yourself...

-- 
Regards,
Chris.
(Remove Elvis's shoes to email me)

ChrisM wrote:
> 
> Having the score on the screen IS useful if you've not actually been 
> watching a game, then you flick the TV on, wander into the pub/shop or 
> whatever and are trying to work out what's going on. Knowing how long is 
> left to play is handy if you haven't been bothering to time the game 
> yourself...
> 

Knowing how long is left to play is *really* handy if you want to watch 
the program that is next.

And there are far more non-football watchers than watchers.

"Holland's unexpected 3-0 defeat of Italy was watched by a peak audience 
of 7.3million on ITV1 on Monday evening, demonstrating that the public's 
appetite for football is undimmed, despite the absence of a home nation 
at Euro 2008. A third of all television viewers, and nearly half of all 
men, tuned in as Holland established their lead - the kind of audience 
levels that will banish the lingering concerns held by the BBC and ITV 
about the wisdom of carrying the tournament."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/international/euro_2008/article4107872.ece

Andy

In article , 
no.way@nospam.com says...
> ChrisM wrote:
> > 
> > Having the score on the screen IS useful if you've not actually been 
> > watching a game, then you flick the TV on, wander into the pub/shop or 
> > whatever and are trying to work out what's going on. Knowing how long is 
> > left to play is handy if you haven't been bothering to time the game 
> > yourself...
> > 
> 
> Knowing how long is left to play is *really* handy if you want to watch 
> the program that is next.
> 
> And there are far more non-football watchers than watchers.
> 
> "Holland's unexpected 3-0 defeat of Italy was watched by a peak audience 
> of 7.3million on ITV1 on Monday evening, demonstrating that the public's 
> appetite for football is undimmed, despite the absence of a home nation 
> at Euro 2008. 

I was almost convinced England were actually there due to the continual 
references to them in virtually every commentary. The BBC interviewing 
Capello at half-time during one of the matches was quite disgraceful given 
that we are still waiting for the other home nation managers to asked their 
opinions on their World Cup chances.